Prokofiev’s ballet the tale of the stone flower: idea, creation, premiere
Abstract
The article is the first attempt to recreate the history of the emergence and early existence of the final ballet by Prokofiev. The composer worked on this opus from July 1948 until the last day of his life. The article analyses the conception, the formation of the ideological basis and choreography of the ballet based on a range of documentary evidence that has never been studied before. It includes sketches of the libretto and musical themes, scores and piano transcriptions, diary notes, letters, business documents as well as transcripts of theatrical discussions of the ballet after Prokofiev’s death. The evidence clearly shows that the creators of the performance perceived it at all the stages of development as a promising and significant step forward. Another interpretation of the Russian national theme had a clearly defined social backbone, spectacular stage “miracles” and a touching lyric thread. All these promised success even at the stage of project approval.
Nevertheless, the premiere of the The Tale of the Stone Flower did not create much hype. The Bolshoi Theater ran only 17 performances of the ballet— the premiere on February 12, 1954, the last performance on April 28, 1955. The literature on the ballet is scarce. A few studies, reviews and memoirs generally leave an impression of a creative failure. It may seem surprising, but this clumsy and ponderous performance did not give way to any theatrical legends or usual “jokes”. Possibly, the necessary bibliographic layer simply did not have time to form, since the impressions of the premiere were soon supplanted by an extremely bright, spectacular, and innovative second production (1957, the Kirov Theater), which really became a landmark event.
To understand the reasons for what happened, it is not enough to trace the appearance of the musical text. Prokofiev, who worked in close collaboration with the choreographer L.M. Lavrovsky, composed and instrumentalized only the first edition of the score. The composer passed away on the eve of those changes that usually turn an integral musical canvas into a ballet performance, where music plays a far from dominant role. Thus, of special interest for us are the details of how the ballet was written. For decades, these data have been outside the scope of musicological research.
Keywords: The Tale of the Stone Flower, ballet, Prokofiev, Lavrovsky, score, modifications, orchestration, premiere, pantomime
For citation: Petukhova S. A. Prokofiev’s ballet the tale of the stone flower: idea, creation, premiere [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2020, No. 3, pp. 141–222. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2020-3-141-222
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2020-3-141-222
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